Tag Archives: Comic book films

The past few days have been a good time to be what might affectionately be called a geek. Sunday saw the culmination of Comic Con 2015, surely the high point of ‘geekery.’ Of course, you didn’t even need to be there to share in the excitement at the new trailers and announcements that were revealed during the convention in San Diego. Thanks to the internet, exclusives and trailers soon reached the masses, leading to often frenzied reactions, some even bordering on hysteria, such as the reaction to the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens footage.

As a big DC fan, two trailers in particular caught my attention: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad, both, for the uninitiated, based on characters published by DC Comics. Naturally, reaction to both has been swift ever since the footage debuted. David Ayer, the director of Suicide Squad, openly stated that one of their aims in making the film was to be true to the comic book canon, which reflects the importance that fans attach to the material. The reaction was further proof of this, and neatly illustrated the size of the task awaiting any filmmaker adapting a comic book title.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Not said in reference to comic book adaptations, of course, but it fits them perfectly. For every reaction of the “I can’t wait to see this” kind, there were a few negative responses to these two big Warner Brothers/DC films. As I said above, comic book fans (of which I’m one) have a sense of ownership over their characters, to the extent that, in some cases at least, they believe that their preferred version of their favourite characters are the true depiction of that character, and any film adaptation must adhere closely to that. If it doesn’t, then the message boards won’t know what hit them.

Witness the reaction to Ben Affleck’s casting as Batman/Bruce Wayne, or when one of his predecessors in the cape and cowl, Michael Keaton, was cast in Tim Burton’s Batman. Cue a backlash from some angry fans in both cases. Much the same, in fact, to the reaction in some quarters when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker in The Dark Knight, or when Anne Hathaway was announced as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.

There was a similar level of fan disquiet when Hugh Jackman was cast as Wolverine, with the complaint being that he’s too tall for the role, a gripe that still continues to this day, some fifteen years after the Australian was cast. Peyton Reed, director of Ant-Man, also experienced some negativity from fans when he was named as original helmer Edgar Wright’s replacement, when the Hot Fuzz director and fan favourite left the project.

Basically, comic book films are important, never more so than now. Even ignoring the box office that some of these films bring in, it’s hard to remember a time when comic book properties were so prevalent, on both the big and small screens. On TV there’s Gotham, set in a pre-Batman Gotham City, Arrow, The Flash, Marvel’s Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, with Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow (a sort of small screen Justice League with a collection of DC heroes) still to come.

Over on the silver screen, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad will be followed by solo outings for a number of DC’s big characters, including Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash, Aquaman and Green Lantern. Marvel will also continue their assault on the box office with debuts for Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and Inhumans, while their X-Men stable at Fox will grow with 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse and The New Mutants, with solo outings for other characters, including Wolverine and Deadpool.

Even the late nineties fads for disaster movies and teen comedies are dwarfed by this. All of this is good news if you’re a comic book fan, not so much if you’re not. As I said before, I’m a comic book fan, so I’m positively giddy with child-like excitement at the thought of it all. However, if I could inject a note of caution into the proceedings: with the sheer number of projects to come, there is a real danger of audience fatigue with all things superhero, as even some die hard comic book fans might agree.

A related risk is that, in an effort to stand out from an increasingly crowded field, filmmakers will take more and risks with the material. Surely a good thing? All of that depends on how it’s received by those hardcore fans. There is the fear that all it will take for the ‘superhero film bubble’ to burst is one or two high profile and costly failures. That’s the pessimistic view. On an optimistic note, comic book properties have such a built in and expectant fan base that there will always be a market for them. Arguably, these films are an integral part of the film calendar, especially the summer block buster movie season.

As much as some might object, it is hard to imagine a medium which allows for such variation, covering as many genres as comic book movies, while we only need to look at the varying ways in which Batman has been presented on film to see what a rich creative opportunity these characters represent for filmmakers.

All of which means that Batman, Superman, the Avengers and their other costumed ilk will be hanging around at the box office for a long time yet, delighting (and probably annoying some) comic book fans for many years to come.

The actress Michelle Rodriguez, (Avatar and The Fast and the Furious series), recently discovered how voicing your opinons on a controversial subject can come back to haunt you, especially through social media. In response to rumours that she could be in line to play a female version of the DC Comics character Green Lantern, she stated her opposition to white characters being altered into non-white minorities, during an interview with TMZ.

Unsurprisingly, her view generated a lot of internet chatter, much of it disagreeing with her comments. Many suggested that because strong, well written roles for non-white actors are in such short supply, changing white characters is a necessary step in order to give these actors good roles. For her part Michelle Rodriguez has since clarified her comments, posting a video on Facebook, where she apologised for “a tendency to speak without a filter”, although not, it seems, for the comments themselves.

As controversial as they were (and no doubt remain) I find myself agreeing with her. However, before I explain why, I want to make it clear that I believe the lack of well written roles for non-white actors in major studio films is a disgrace, especially when it comes to leading roles. The situation on the small screen is improving, with shows like How To Get Away With Murder, with Viola Davis, and Scandal, starring Kerry Washington in the lead role, although this is not before time.

All that being said, while I agree that there is an issue, I don’t believe that changing and re-writing white characters so that a non-white actor can be cast is the answer. At best, I think it’s a step towards adopting (even informally) a quota system, and at worst, it can ever be a case of re-writing history.

For example, a TV show is in development called Broad Squad, which centres on the first female graduates from Boston’s police academy during the 70’s. Despite the fact that this is a true story, and that all of the women were white, one of the four lead roles has been given to the black actress Rutina Wesley.

Even if you have a tenuous grasp of America’s history of race relations, you’ll know how much opposition a black recruit to any police force could possibly have faced at that time, even more so if that recruit happened to be female. However, by altering the past, it runs the risk of implying, even to a small extent, that things weren’t as bad as they actually were. It can make periods of history look more tolerant than they actually were, as if we’re looking at the past through the lens of our present day desire for racial harmony and tolerance.

While desire for tolerance is absolutely right, it should be built on an acceptance of the wrongs of the past, and not by pretending that things were far rosier than they actually were. In other words, we don’t address historical or present issues by lessening their severity, and by avoiding the scale of the issues we face.

What makes it worse is when challenging parts for black and minority ethnic characters are themselves changed. For example, the Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul is a rare example of a non-white character in comic books who is complex and multi-layered. However, in both of his recent live action depictions, he’s been played by white actors Liam Neeson (in Batman Begins) and Matt Nable (in Arrow.)

While both portrayals have been enjoyable to watch, it’s rather sad to see an important part of the character’s history changed. It was even more disappointing in Arrow, when producers cast Homeland actor Navid Negahban (Abu Nazir), as a high ranking member of Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins, when he would have been a perfect fit for Ra’s himself.

To be clear again: I recognise that there is a sad shortage of good roles for non-white actors, especially lead roles, and even more so in mainstream studio projects. However, I think it’s sad that rather than concentrating on adapating those non-white characters that already exist (such as DC’s Cassandra Cain) or writing and developing original parts for non-white actors, studios are seemongly settling for just changing white characters. At best, it seems lazy, at worst, it’s an insult to the actors themselves. Crucially, it does nothing to solve what, sadly, remains a major issue.

As a big fan of comic books films, I’m currently in my element. With films like The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man and The Fantastic Four reboot to come over the next few months, plus a certain Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, expanding the DC movie universe, even as Marvel enters its Phase Three.

With all of these films in development, it’s no surprise that there are rumours, at an almost daily rate it seems, as to which actors might be playing which character. Of course, the rumour mill has always been a part of the Hollywood blockbuster machine, even more so when it involves such popular characters as Batman, Superman and Spiderman. However, one rumour that has caught my eye recently concerns Captain Marvel. Perhaps only really well known to comic book fans, she is in line for her Marvel Comics Universe debut on 6th July 2018, becoming the first of Marvel’s female characters to have her own solo outing.

However, it’s the rumour that we’ll be seeing her a lot sooner than 2018 that really interests me. This year, to be exact. For internet gossip suggests that Captain Marvel will make a cameo appearance in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, due out in the UK on 24th April. If all the internet chatter is to be believed (and that’s a big if, of course) then Age of Ultron will see the current Avengers roster disband, with the aftermath explored in next year’s Captain America: Civil War, and the next two Avengers sequels, Infinity War Parts I and II. Captain Marvel, so the rumours go, will form part of a new Avengers line-up, revealed in the now traditional Marvel post-credits sequence.

This means that, should this be true, Marvel/Disney have not only managed to find and cast the actress to play Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, they’ve also managed to shoot her scenes without a single image or even the name of the actress leaking out. Not that there haven’t been names mentioned as to who might be suiting up as Captain Marvel, with Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt being two of the most frequently mentioned. Still, if this is true, it is quite an achievement, in this social media saturated age, to have done something so secret, and to (at least so far) have got away with it.

As someone just starting out as a filmmaker, I can appreciate how important it is to get your work noticed, and how promotion, such as trailers, Twitter, Facebook, posters, etc, can really help. However, there must always be a concern with any filmmaker to protect their work from being leaked, and therefore ruining any plot twists ahead of the release date.

As exciting as it is to see trailers, there is always a part of me that is disappointed to see major plot points or pivotal scenes revealed in a trailer, to the point that they lose their impact when you actually see the film. It feels a lot like sneaking a look at your presents before your birthday or Christmas. You still get the presents, but the surprise (which is at least part of the fun) is lost. Now I understand how much is a stake with these Hollywood films, not least financially. A good promotional campaign can generate interest in a film, or, in the case of a film like Age of Ultron, ramp it up to fever pitch. This will translate to ticket sales, and a healthy (at the very least) box office gross. I just wish that the big Hollywood studios would realise that less is often more, and hold back from stuffing their trailers with all the good stuff, and in the process spoiling the surprise for audiences.

This is why, if Disney/Marvel have pulled this off, I think they deserve some kind of an award. Yes, we all know that all the talk of the ‘magic’ of the film business is just that: talk. It’s all green screens, special effects and make believe. There is also the chance that it’s all a rumour, just stuff and nonsense. By the time you read this, it might have all been revealed as yet more idle words filling up the internet. There could be no Captain Marvel cameo. However, I really hope it’s true. I like the thought that a major film studio has realised how thrilling it will be for an audience to see a comic book character on screen, for the first time, with no pre-release stills or trailer spoilers. Without even a casting announcement. Now, (and if you’ll excuse the pun) that really would be a marvel.